Seven guys? Six guys plus a point guard in serious foul trouble?
That’ll work for the Arizona Wildcats. As long as Lauri Markkanen is one of them, that is.
Markkanen dominated the smaller Cal State Bakersfield frontcourt en route to the Wildcats’ 78-66 win in their home opener Tuesday at McKale Center.
Playing in only his second game as a collegian, the Finnish big man scored 26 points on 8-for-11 shooting, made all nine free throws he took and had eight rebounds, allowing the Wildcats to forget about the fact that both Kadeem Allen (sprained knee) and Allonzo Trier (apparent ineligibility) sat in street clothes.
While it was a different matchup, a different game and a different continent that Markkanen was excelling in Tuesday, it was more of the same from a guy who made a name for himself on the European scene last summer.
“I’m used to, pretty much my whole life, the big moment,” Markkanen said, later adding a simple analysis of his matchup against the undersized WAC opponent: “Of course, it’s a little bit different. Of course I have to use my size against smaller defenders. That’s pretty much it.”
If that sounded maybe a bit modest, UA coach Sean Miller made up for it with praise for the freshman big man.
“Lauri’s one of the best players in college basketball. He is. He’s a monster,” Miller said. “He can put it on the floor, he’s a great free-throw shooter, he guards perimeter players, post players and he plays three positions for us.”
Fellow freshman Rawle Alkins and Kobi Simmons gave Markkanen plenty of backcourt support too, while the foul-plagued Parker Jackson-Cartwright had five assists to two turnovers.
Alkins had 15 points and made four three-pointers after shooting just 1 for 4 in the Wildcats’ win over Michigan State on Friday. Simmons, the early hero against Michigan State, had 13 points by making 8 of 11 free throws, while he was just 2 of 8 from the field.
After the game, Simmons dished praise for both Markkanen and Alkins.
“We know what we’re working with with Lauri,” Simmons said. “His ability to step up tonight was not surprising to anyone in the locker room.”
And even though Alkins was just 1 of 4 against Michigan State in Honolulu, Simmons said Alkins has been working on his jump shot.
“He was going to come along, and it clicked,” Simmons said.
The Wildcats shot 49 percent from the field and made half of their 14 three-pointers but ultimately won the game at the free-throw line, taking 24 more free throws than the Roadrunners and scoring 20 more points off them. Cal State Bakersfield shot only 11 free throws, making seven.
Jaylin Airington led Cal State Bakersfield with 31 points, including 4-of-10 three-point shooting.
Arizona took an 18-point halftime lead and pushed it to 21 early in the second half, but when Jackson-Cartwright went to the bench with his fourth foul and 13:11 left, the game tightened up considerably. Jackson-Cartwright appeared to grab and then swipe the face of a Bakersfield player as he tried to cut behind him along the baseline.
The fourth foul sent Jackson-Cartwright to the bench, and Bakersfield took advantage of his absence for about three minutes by going on a 17-0 run that started with two free throws resulting from the foul.
Arizona actually finished the game with four players having been called for four fouls each, an unsettling stat for a team with virtually no depth.
The Wildcats were down to just seven players to start the game because Allen’s knee sprain suffered Friday against Michigan State did not recover sufficiently in time for Tuesday’s game. Allen was hurt in the Wildcats’ 65-63 win over the Spartans, but managed to make the game-winning layup and appeared to walk out of the Stan Sheriff Center with only a very slight limp.
Miller said after Tuesday’s game that Allen’s knee did not suffer any structural damage that would require surgery but that he didn’t know how long Allen would be out. He said he didn’t think it would be a long-term injury but also vowed not to rush Allen back.
“I don’t really know a timeline or prognosis, but we’re taking it 2-3 days at a time,” Miller said.
Simmons started in Allen’s place, but that left the Wildcats without a single guard available off the bench and they played walk-on Paulo Cruz at off guard briefly on two occasions in the first half.
Alkins hit his fourth three-pointer in five attempts from the left corner to give UA a 51-30 lead with 16:22 left and it looked like the Wildcats would cruise the rest of the way until Jackson-Cartwright’s fourth foul. Bakersfield went on a 17-0 run that started with two resulting free throws, later cutting it to just 53-49 with 9:04 and the game stayed competitive the rest of the way.
The Wildcats had an easier time of it in the first half. They took a 44-26 halftime lead, getting 12 points and four rebounds from Markkanen against the smaller Roadrunners of the Western Athletic Conference, while Alkins had another 12 in part on three three-pointers. Dedrick Basile led Cal State Bakersfield with nine points and three assists.
That things became a little squirrelly in the second half was just the way the Wildcats’ season has gone so far.
Nothing is easy.
“We’re doing the best we can with the situation we’re in,” Miller said.
